New York Mets: Offseason Review

The Mets put together the best offseason in the MLB and one of their best offseasons in recent memory. Let's talk about it.

The Mets offseason started off with a bang but not in the traditional sense. The much

maligned Wilpons finally sold the team to billionaire and longtime Mets fan, Steve

Cohen. This gave Mets fans sky high hopes for signing all the best free agents who just

happened to be stars at 3 positions the Mets needed help in the most. Fast-forward half a

year later, and not signing any of Trevor Bauer, George Springer, or J.T. Realmuto would

initially seem like the Mets had a failed offseason. That is simply not true.

First the biggest and most upsetting part of the Mets offseason. The GOAT Tim Tebow

retired. Wherever you are reading this, please stop and take a quick knee for Tebow.

Now onto the second biggest news of the offseason, the blockbuster trade. Instead of

signing one of the big three free agents, the Mets acquired arguably the best player

moved this offseason in Francisco Lindor. Not only did the Mets get one of the best short

stops in the game, they did so without giving up any of their top prospects. Andres

Gimenez and Amed Rosario are both young and talented but they are no Lindor. And

Isaiah Greene and Josh Wolf, while talented, are at least a couple years away from

making an impact. On top of all that, they also got a great #2/3 starter in Carlos “Cookie”

Carrasco.

Frankie Lindor (left) and Cookie Carrasco (right) headline the Mets offseason moves

At the start of the offseason, Sandy Alderson stated that one of the biggest areas he

wanted to focus on was depth and he did a great job at that. On the pitching side, the

Mets traded away Steven Matz but brought back a bunch of arms to battle for the final

spots in the rotation and the bullpen. Taijuan Walker, Jordan Yamamoto, Joey Lucchesi,

Sean Reid-Foley, Sam McWilliams, Jerry Blevins, and Yennsy Diaz are all expected to

compete with David Peterson for the final few spots available on the MLB roster.

Peterson and Walker are likely to win the final rotation spots behind DeGrom, Carrasco,

and returning on the qualifying offer, Marcus Stroman, with the rest competing for the

bullpen. The two bullpen additions that are all but guaranteed are strikeout artist Trevor

May, and lefty subarmer Aaron Loup.

May (left) and Loup (right) will look to add some much needed stability to an inconsistent Mets bullpen

To bolster the depth on the bench, the Mets signed two defensive first CF in Albert

Almora Jr. and Kevin Pillar. Both will likely be spot starters and late game defensive

replacements for Nimmo and/or Dom Smith. They also traded for CF prospect Khalil

Lee, although barring injury, he likely won’t see much time in the majors this year. The

Mets added speedy utility man Jonathan Villar and backup 1B/OF Jose Martinez to

bolster the infield and possibly even the outfield.

The Mets also addressed their catcher issue by signing late bloomer James McCann to a 4

year/$40 million deal. Despite being a worse than replacement level player as recently as

2018, McCann has revamped both his offense and defensive game to become one of the

top 5 catchers in the game over the past two years. While normally this kind of out of

nowhere performance would give one cause for concern, catchers generally take more

time to develop and all reports indicate that he was worked hard and genuinely changed

his game. Realmuto wasn’t going to sign as early as the Mets wanted and this is a big

money saving move which leads to what needs to happen before Opening Day.

Extensions! The Mets have three players who they need to sign to extensions. Frankie

Lindor, Michael Conforto, and Noah Syndergaard. The obvious candidate is Lindor. He

is a superstar player on both sides of the ball, is only 27, and has the personality to be the

face of NY sports. Michael Conforto is homegrown, hit better than Springer in last year’s

shortened season, is 28 to Springer’s 31, and is a solid right fielder. Finally the wild card

of the bunch, Thor. This could be a great gamble for the Mets because when healthy,

Syndergaard has arguably the best stuff in baseball. He thrives in the spotlight and has a

hilarious social media presence. The Mets will likely wait until he returns to the mound

before they offer one, but offering it now could mean a big injury discount should he be

worried about becoming the next Matt Harvey.

All in all, the Mets had a very good offseason. The only position of possible need that the

Mets didn’t address was 3B. The Mets have J.D. Davis projected to be the starter with

Villar and, worst case scenario, Jeff McNeil to back him up. While he is a well above

average offensive player, his glove at 3B (and pray he doesn’t have to spend time in LF)

brings his overall value back down to just about a league average player, making him the

only regular in the lineup that is not a top 10 (or arguably top 5) option at his position.

The Mets are in a great position to win the division (I personally don’t believe in the

Braves pitching) and possibly even challenge the Dodgers and Padres for the NL pennant.